Dungeons & daiquiris

For many authors, the process of
getting one's book into the hands of readers is a bit like venturing into the
S&M playpen at a BDSM party. In the middle of the room you have the
seasoned sadists (traditional publishers) brandishing their favoured instrument of
torture (coveted publishing contracts), beating willing masochists (aspiring
authors) into submission (with the grueling querying process). And on the
periphery you have the switches (authors like myself) who are only there for a
limited taste of pain and humiliation (rejection letters), knowing full well
they can stop the game at any time and retreat for cocktails at the (self-publishing)
rooftop bar upstairs.

1950s illustration by Joe
Shuster, co-creator of Superman

I would hazard a guess that
most indie authors sipping cocktails at the rooftop bar have ventured
into the dungeon at least once in their lives. Especially at the start of their
careers, when the thrill of potentially securing a contract with a big name
traditional publisher supposedly meant utter validation of one's worth as a writer,
coupled with the convenience of appointed industry professionals taking care of
all the technical design, production, and marketing stuff, with no need for
you, the author, to worry about any capital outlay.

That's all fair and well
until the first rejection letter lands in your Inbox, and it stings like a
motherfucker. Then another, and another. The pile of rejections will eventually
hit double digits, but by now you've hopefully grown a pretty thick skin. At
this point, you can decide to stay down in the dungeon and subject yourself to
an indeterminate number of future lashings, or extricate yourself and make your
way to the rooftop bar with some semblance of dignity intact.

There are two ways to get
there. The first is via a hi-tech glass elevator on the outside of the
building, but you will need to tip the doorman quite handsomely
for the privilege of such a swift, smooth ride. The second is round the back,
via the fire escape, and although it costs virtually nothing, it does require a
certain level of techie prowess and stamina to ascend each and every flight of
stairs. Thank God for Google, and all those switches who have gone before us,
kind enough to leave a few flickering strip lights on in the stairwells to
guide the way.

After last month's decision to leave the dungeon, and having no money to tip the doorman, I drew up a checklist of all the individual steps I need
to climb up the fire escape in order to reach the rooftop bar. Besides the strawberry daiquiri
(and champers!) with my name on it, I've heard the views are incredible up
there.

In
no particular order, my current work schedule over the next several months
consists of the following:

Apply to the National
Library of South Africa for 4 x International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs);
each edition of the book (print, Mobi, ePub, PDF) needs its own ISBN. Generate the barcode for the paperback edition to be incorporated into the back
cover design.

Complete the online Tax
Interview. NB: South African authors no longer need to apply for an Individual
Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)
from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Because SA has a tax treaty with the
US, we can simply enter our existing SA tax number in the online form, and
automatically qualify for 0% withholding on royalties.

Provide Payoneer account
details for royalty payments to be made electronically.

Create an author + book
profile.

Format my MS Word
manuscript to conform to the technical specs required for an ebook, upload to
KDP for automatic conversion to a Mobi file, and make the Kindle edition of my
book available for pre-order on Amazon (worldwide), at a list price of $6.99 (excluding VAT), or the equivalent thereof
across all other currencies.

Wait for file review and,
once approved, give KDP the green light to release the Kindle edition for sale
on 31 May 2016 at midnight local time in each
marketplace. Only then will sample content become available for download.

Complete the online Tax
Interview. NB: South African authors no longer need to apply for an Individual
Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)
from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Because SA has a tax treaty with the
US, we can simply enter our existing SA tax number in the online form, and
automatically qualify for 0% withholding on royalties.

Provide Payoneer account
details for royalty payments to be made electronically.

Wait for file review and,
once approved, request a proof copy to be shipped to my birth mom in Texas (she
will WhatsApp me the photos to see that everything looks exactly as it should).

Once approved, give
CreateSpace the green light to release the POD paperback edition for sale on 31 May 2016 at midnight local time in each Amazon marketplace,
plus the CreateSpace eStore, at a list price of $12.99
(excluding VAT), or the equivalent thereof across all other currencies.

Send both the ePub and POD
paperback files to Mega Digital via WeTransfer.

Wait for file review and,
once approved, request a proof copy of the paperback to be couriered from Cape
Town to Johannesburg.

Once approved, give
Megabooks the green light to release the POD paperback and ePub editions for
sale on 31 May 2016, at a list price of R190 and R100
respectively (including VAT, excluding the R59 door-to-door courier fee for the
paperback). Note: When ordering online, SA customers can pay Megabooks via
credit card or EFT.

[UPDATE: Mega
Digital and Megabooks closed down at the end of August 2016.]

Register as a vendor with Skoobs,
Theatre of Books. Order my first print run of paperbacks from Mega
Digital - using the funds I managed to raise from my Indiegogo campaign - for sale at the Johannesburg launch on 2 August 2016, and delivery to the five places
of legal deposit (see below). I did a barter deal with my ridiculously talented
mate Marianne Brits-Strodl, who will photograph the event for me, before emigrating
to the UK shortly thereafter. It will also be live video streamed on my Facebook page, for those who can't be at the event
in person.

[UPDATE:
Following the closure of Mega Digital and Megabooks at the end of August 2016,
I usedPinetown Printersfor my second print run in December 2016.]

Legal
Deposit Act 54 of 1997

In compliance with Section
2 of the Legal Deposit Act, I will have to supply the National Library of South Africa with
5 copies of Umbilicus (1 copy couriered to 5 places of legal deposit -
Pretoria, Cape Town x 2, Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg).

National
distribution

Many, if not most, South
African bricks-and-mortar retailers in the business of selling new books - from
small independents to large national chains - work on asale or return (SOR)aka consignment basis. Your book is given a shelf-life
of around 3 - 4 months. Thereafter, all unsold stock is returned to the
publisher / author. While an indie author can do business with indie bookstores
directly, when it comes to dealing with the large chains, you have to go
through a distributor on the company's vendor list.

In a nutshell, I need to
made sufficient profit from online sales of my ebook and POD paperback to be
able to afford the upfront printing costs required to fill consignment orders.
Only then can I approach independent bookstores directly, and/or hire the
services of a distributor to handle business with the large chains.

[UPDATE: Thebook buying at Exclusive Books is done by [their] store managers and not centrally.
Store managers can only be approached by distributors registered with Exclusive
Books. [Their] registered distributors are Bacchus Books, Blue Weaver, Faradawn,
PSD, Phambili, Xavier Nagel, and Feather Communications. Each distributor has
its own trading terms and will be able to advise you on the process of selling
your book to Exclusive Books and other book retailers.

In
March 2017, I met with Owen Early of Bacchus Books. He is a registered distributor to not only Exclusive
Books, but also Wordsworth Books, Bargain Books, Adams Books, and various independent
bookstores, across all 9 provinces. I had to supply him with stock upfront and create an Advance Info (AI) sheet in order for him to be able to rep my book to the retail buyers at bookstores. Umbilicus started appearing on the shelves
of Exclusive Books at the end of April 2017, at the RRP of R200.]

Please note: I will be
updating this page with more resources and links as and when I work through the
steps. Both as a personal record, to refer back to when I'm ready to
self-publish future work, and hopefully also as a helpful little 'How To' guide
for fellow South African authors who may be embarking on their own
self-publishing journeys.

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Jozibelle was born in March 2011, a few months after my son Goran Blake entered the world. In May 2016 I birthed my second child, 'Umbilicus: An autobiographical novel', which you can read more about on my author website, www.paulagruben.com. In May 2017 I decided to unpublish about 95% of the posts on Jozibelle because most of the content contained dead links & outdated info. These days I prefer to keep a simpler photo journal over on Instagram, so feel free to follow me there. You'll find links to all my social media pages in the drop-down menu here, as well as a library of links to things that are of interest & importance to me. Thanks for visiting!